Pretec 433x 8GB
Pretec’s recently announced 433x cards are now shipping, while Hoodman has upgraded their RAW 280X cards to 300X. See how they both fared in my real-world tests in the D300.
Nothing earth-shattering here, unfortunately. In the RAW shooting test, both cards clocked near-identical specs of 5.5 effective fps and 23 MB/sec, putting them firmly among our recommended cards but far from the elite group. In JPG shooting, the 433x Pretec scored a solid (but by no means remarkable) 84 while the Hoodman only scored a middle-of-the-road 78.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Apr 13, 2009 at 6:55 am
I find the RAW ratings difficult to interpret. Is there a way to guage user impact the same way you have captured for JPGs? I realize the burst performance with RAW might not allow a large differentiation in continuous RAW file shooting between your A and B categories. However, with time and new technology I assume it would. I have an old card that at 6 fps bursts 20 RAW 12 bit files at 6 fps while a newer SanDisk Extreme IV that gives roughly 25-6. Also noticeable is the time lag until you can continue shooting again. With the old card it seems like an eternity.
2 The Sports Photo Guy // Apr 13, 2009 at 7:45 am
That’s exactly what I’ve tried to do. The 20-shot burst is just enough to overflow the buffer so you begin to see how quickly the camera can write out to the card and resume shooting. Keep in mind that I’m shooting at 8 fps, so the closer the ‘effective’ test fps is the less impact the card has on shooting speed.
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